Jenna Bush Hager is spilling on her famous parents’ personal lives.
On Tuesday’s episode of Today with Jenna and Sheinelle, Hager and Sheinelle Jones discussed Jones’ recent interview with former First Lady Jill Biden.
Jones recalled reading a passage from Biden’s memoir in which the former first lady described meeting with President Bush at the George W. Bush Library.
“And then she talks about her mom, Laura, and said Laura came in and said, ‘Hey Bushy,’ then sauntered into the hallway for a cup of coffee as he smiled at her,” Jones recalled.
“That sounds like you were reading a romance,” joked Hager.
Hager confirmed the unexpected nickname.
“They call each other Bushy. My dad loves a nickname,” she said.
“I can’t remember when Bushy became the thing,” Hager continued. “But they both call each other Bushy.”
She noted that when she was little, her parents called each other “Darlin.” Hager then revealed that her father’s nickname for her husband, Henry Hager, is “Stretch” due to his height.
Nicknames have long been important within the Bush family.
For much of her life, Hager called her grandfather, the former president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, “Poppy.” This was a name he went by when he was a little boy.
The nickname stuck and eventually inspired Hager to name her daughter “Poppy Louise” in 2015.
In a previous interview, Hager explained that while she was living in the White House, the Secret Service had code names for both her and her twin sister Barbara.
"When you have Secret Service, you have a code name. My sister's code name was 'Turquoise' because her eyes are really beautiful and turquoise."
Hager noted that her own code name was “Twinkle.”
